Nastia Liukin decided to fix rift with Shawn Johnson after not being invited to her wedding

Shawn Johnson’s wedding played a big role in her and Nastia Liukin becoming friends again.Johnson, 32, revealed in a new interview with Access Hollywood that the famous gymnasts had a falling out after the 2008 Beijing Games, but they made up eight years later.

In 2018, the pair spoke about their friendship rift in a YouTube sitdown at Liukin’s Grander Summit in Boston.Liukin explained that she decided to “fix” things with Johnson after learning she wasn’t invited to Johnson’s 2016 wedding to Andrew East.Their path to reconciliation started with Johnson writing an email that she described as “a love letter” to Liukin while sitting in an airport in Dallas, near Liukin’s hometown.

“If you don’t respond, I totally get it,” Johnson said in the letter, per NBC Sports.“Just know that I love you.

I miss my best friend.I support you in everything you do.”Liukin said she got the email while at a restaurant in Manhattan.

She had just done an interview with The New York Times where she was asked if she was attending Johnson’s wedding to ex-NFL star Andrew East.At the time, Liukin hadn’t received an invitation to the wedding.“That’s when it really hit me because I was like, oh my gosh, this girl that I had been best friends with for so many years and this moment that’s about to happen in her life that is the biggest moment of her life, and I’m not going to be there,” Liukin said in the YouTube clip.

“When [the reporter] said that, I was like, I have to fix this.”The Russian-born athlete recalled going to the bathroom and crying over Johnson’s email.She immediately responded and the former teammates met up in New York a few weeks later.

Liukin later attended Johnson and East’s wedding on April 16, 2016 in Franklin, Tennessee.She noted that Johnson “was the bigger person” by reaching out to her first, which led to them making up.Liukin and Johnson were teenagers when they both competed at the 2008 Beijing Games.

Their f...